Dubé promises to ‘gradually wean’ health system away from private sector

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé promised on Tuesday to “wean” the health system from the private sector.

He announced that he was considering imposing maximum rates on the private sector and putting an end to the “coming and going” of doctors between the public and private sectors.

“I think we are very close to being able to gradually wean ourselves off the private network,” he said.

Dubé said that three per cent of Quebec doctors practice privately and that “before we get to four, five or six per cent, (…) we have to say that’s enough. At three per cent, we should be able to correct the situation fairly quickly.”

The opposition quickly welcomed what it considered to be a “major change of direction,” with Québec solidaire (QS) Vincent Marissal pointing out that the Legault government itself had fed the private sector “monster” with “growth hormones.”

Parti Québécois (PQ) MNA Joël Arseneau said, “we are opening the door wide to the private sector, we are praising it, and today we are saying: ‘maybe we went too far’.”

Liberal health spokesperson André Fortin said that he noticed during questioning, that the minister was causing surprise within his own government team.

“Government MNAs spent almost the entire session suggesting all the benefits of the private health system, (…) while Minister Dubé, for his part, claimed to want to wean Quebec off this dependency,” said Fortin. “We really have the impression that Christian Dubé surprised his own party.”

Arseneau compared the announcement to the Legault government’s recent stance on immigration.

“We can’t help but think that there is a good dose of improvisation,” he said.

On Sunday, Dubé said he wanted to require that new doctors must practice in the public system for a certain number of years.

At the same time, the College of Physicians set out its own principles regarding private health care and requested that “the expansion of the private health care sector be suspended immediately.”

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews